Group JYJ reclaimed the 1st place, recording a reversal with their first single ‘Wake Me Tonight’ released in Japan.

According to Japan’s biggest records-counting site Oricon Chart on the morning of January 27, JYJ’s first single ‘Wake Me Tonight’ –that was released last Jan. 21– climbed up the top of Single Daily Chart, recording sales of 20,609 copies for one day on January 26.

This single had also recorded No. 1 on Tower Records [Japan]’s Daily Chart and HMV 24-hour chart, as well as, No. 2 on Oricon Daily Chart; on its release date. JYJ has proven that there is no change in JYJ’s popularity –despite many restrictions all the while–, with this being the first time that they have their album distributed fully in Japan.

JYJ has [already] climbed to No.1 on Tower Records’ Monthly Chart and No.2 on Oricon Weekly Chart without an official release in Japan, with their regular album ‘JUST US’ released prior in Korea last summer.

(T/N: a long report on finale of JYJ Japan Dome Tour. I thought it would give everyone a good picture of the whole dome performance set-up and what each member said roughly. Hope you enjoy reading!)

Korea’s top artists JYJ held their Japan Dome Tour [2014 Japan Dome Tour ~ Ichigo Ichie ~] at Fukuoka Yahoo Auction Dome on 24th December (Wed).
The tour which started on 18th November in Tokyo Dome proceeded to Osaka, and then on 23rd and 24th for 2 days, JYJ decorated their dome tour finale with their first Fukuoka concerts with roaring success.

On 24th Christmas eve, while fans eagerly waited in their Christmas cos-play (T/N: costumer play, meaning wearing a costume to become someone/something else) holding JYJ goods, the dome went into darkness.
Penlights the fans were holding shone red all at once, covering one side of the dome with red waves.
When the screen showed clips of Junsu, Yuchun, Jaejoong one-by-one, voices of the audience flew about shouting out the members’ names.
When dancers in black costumes sure to heighten the excitment of the dome came out to show-off their acrobatic dance moves, the screen close up on [JYJ] logo.
When Jaejoong, Yuchun and Junsu appeared on the top stage dressed in black/gold glittering costumes, the place went into a storm of happiness.

When they sang the opening number “Empty” on top of a firery stage, their powerful dance and voices raised the voltage of the place at once but yet during their ballad number “Ayy Girl (R&B ver)” the place was wrapped up in their sweet voices, capturing fans’ hearts very early into the concert.
The place was in an uproar reaching the highest climax with their even more passionate performances since its the tour finale.

After receiving fanatic responses, the opening stage ended and MC time starts.
After Jaejoong’s “welcome to JYJ Dome Tour in Fukuoka!” and Junsu’s call “Good evening everyone~! I’m Junsu of JYJ. 2014 Asia Tour ends today. For this, I will put in all my energy from the start till the end, going with my all strength so everyone! Let’s enjoy till the end!”, the place shook with roars of cheers.
Fans were nodding in agreement when these words were spoken “good evening this is Jaejoong. Its the last one today right. Although we just started, it feels lonely right (as the final performance)”.
When he said “and Merry Christmas everyone!”, the audience responded with loud cheers of “Merry Christmas” back.
Jaejoong further continued with “since its Christmas today, let’s enjoy with a special performance we prepared only for today. Thank you” and raised expectations towards the performance while passing the baton to Yuchun.
“I’m Yuchun of JYJ!” he greeted and gave out a huge sigh with “today is the last of this tour right. Haaaaaa~” and continued “dome tour, I want to do it one more time you know”. At these words, the dome was filled with voices responding in a split second “we want!!”
“But….. JYJ will also try hard so please give us your support till the end!” said Yuchun.
After “until the end, ready to enjoy, OK~!” shouted by Yuchun in his usual style, the second stage started!
“And so please listen to this” said Jaejoong, introducing the number “Let Me See”.
After feeling intoxicated with that gem of a harmony created with these 3 beautiful voices, everyone in the dome was then intoxicated with “In Heaven”, the masterpiece ballad that stimulates all our 5 senses.

The fans, applauding loudly with all their emotions after each song, complimented the 3 members’ performances towards making this the best LIVE.
A clip was shown on screen to look back at their activities as JYJ and as individuals, and when the words [now is the time to show a new look ~…..] appeared, it was time for the special solo performances.
Jaejoong appeared in chic black-base clothes sitting on a chair and sang emotionally to Nakajima Miyuki’s [Keshou], while Junsu also sang Nakajima Miyuki’s [Kimi to Sora no Aida]. Yuchun then followed with Fukuyama Masaharu’s [Sai Ai].
While they delivered these emotional ballads which fit their individual image exactly, everyone was so touched that some fans who even shed tears.
Then the atmosphere took a complete change, and Jaejoong appeared wearing a leather jacket with frills showing off a look mixed with sexiness and charisma singing passionately to [Butterfly].
This was a rock number elegant and bewitching like a butterfly, and the audience was sucked into a vortex of passion. “Everyone, are you ready to go crazy?” shouted Jaejoong and everyone responded with “Yeah~!”
And to further words of “Go crazy? You sure?”, fans shouted even louder “Yeah~!”
“Coz today is the finale. We have enjoyed those concerts we did until now too but today everyone please force yourselves a little…. like this [I am normally like this but because its the finale I’ll put in more for you] (laugh). Like more crazy then usual….. To the level that will shock even the friend you came with today….. I want you to enjoy today with that kind of tension!” said Jaejoong encouraging the fans and finally “next song, you know what it is right?”
“First floor, second floor Ultra Soul!” (Jaejoong) “Hey!” (fans) “now everybody! Ultra Soul!” (Jaejoong) “Hey!” (fans), the call & response continued like this.
With cheers that filled-up the entire place, “I’m going to ride this tide!” said Jaejoong and went on to do [Ultra Soul] by B’z.
Fans who got excited during the MC where Jaejoong captured their hearts, then screamed his name “Jaejoonggggggg~!” loudly and shook the floor together with Jaejoong.

Next up was Yuchun wearing a greyish jacket.
When he sang the R&B-flavor number [I Love You] with his charismatic high tone and heavy low notes voice, the dome reacted with unbreaking applauses and cheers that sounded like howling. (T/N: can’t help it just want to comment here that this use of “howling” by the reporter was just hilarious and so apt!)
While reciprocating to screams of female fans, he also expressed his appreciation to the many male fans’ cheers when they said “Yuchun-san, I love you” (T/N: very difficult to translate DAISUKI coz it can mean LOVE it can mean like a lot etc. but I’ll go with LOVE coz I believe its closer), prompting him to joke “that’s a little (laugh)” (T/N: meaning he CAN’T reciprocate lol) and making everyone laughed.
As today is the tour’s final day, Yuchun said with regret “now, I want time to stop. I mean, I think members may do individual LIVE but as JYJ probably 3 years, 4 years later….” and the audience went “eeeeehhhh~!” in shocked.
As if to make it sound better to himself too, Yuchun explained “I mean, we are going for military service right”
After pausing for a breath, he continued “but please wait for us JYJ” and everyone responded back “we’ll wait~!!!”
Changing the topic, “its kind of exciting ’cause it’s Christmas right? I was excited with Junsu yesterday (laugh) when Junsu said at the side of the stage [what do I do? This really makes me uncomfortable you know]. But sorry Junsu (laugh), I personally want to give fans a Christmas present….. I want our performance today to be a present from us” said Yuchun and went on to perform [30] and after that whispered “everyone, I love you” to huge cheers from fans.

Last from the solo section was Junsu wearing pure-white long coat.
Strong yet beautiful voice singing “because you are not alone, because I will protect you ~” to fans like he is talking to them with AI’s [STORY], and was drown with applause.
“It’s been a while so my Japanese may not convey my meaning 100% but it’s great to be able to communicate in Japanese right? All of you are so kind. Even when I used ridiculous Japanese you will understand me and I feel thankful every time” expressing his gratefulness.
“And so its the same today, are you ready?” he shouted and there were cheers heard from male fans.
In response to those cheers, he said “can I hear the guys’ voices today? One – two!” and the male fans cheered “Junsuuuuuuu~!!”
Furthermore, “and from now!” said Junsu, “Junsu Time!” shouted fans as per usual, and an intensive performance started.
To the strong electron sound, Junsu performed [Incredible] with the dancers and overwhelmed the audience with a perfectly-executed dance performance and his predominant singing skill.

The stage started again with 3 of them singing [So So].
As its Christmas eve today and finale of dome tour, Junsu, Jaejoong and Yuchun appeared on the top stage cos-play as snowman, Santa Claus and Tree!
Fans went wild with excitement at how cute the 3 of them looked.
The simple performance, born from 3 of them wanting to make fans happy, brought delight to the audience.

While singing Yuchun’s hit-drama [Sungkyunkwang Scandal] theme song [Chajatta], they moved towards the sub-stage.

They were moving slowly towards audience at the back.
When the 3 of them were approaching slowly on the moving stage, everyone was overjoyed!
Junsu said “after debuting 10 years, this is a first cos-play for me (laugh)”. “Yes, for Junsu and me (laugh). But Jaejoong is sexy right” quipped Yuchun.
“We are almost turning 30 and frankly this is too embarrassing” Jaejoong said shyly while Junsu quipped “at first there was talk about dressing-up as girls but on a moving stage you can see…..(T/N: erhm, I supposed you can imagine them wearing SKIRTS and hence….) so we gave up on that” bringing continuous laughters from everyone.
In addition, Jaejoong started doing “adult” talk and the place went into an uproar.
In the midst of singing SMAP’s popular song [Lion Heart] and [Be My Girl], 3 of them went on separate trams and gifted audience with color balls that included their signatures, toys, and even the costumes they wore, making one round of the dome to the delights of fans.

JYJ appeared again after changing into dark blue outfits and sang the title track [BACK SEAT] in their new album [JUST US], followed by [Be the One] and [Valentine], and finally there remains only 1 song.
“It’s time to introduce our final song but….. Time passes so fast right. Its amazing how fast time passed from Yuchun’s [are you ready!] just now. I don’t want to do the next song. I mean, today is the last time”.
In addition, “when the new single release has been confirmed, we shouted BANZAI! (T/N: we did it) It’s the same happiness we feel when we first took No 1 on the weekly chart after debut in Japan. So this moment should not be a lonely time for us but a waiting moment for new happiness I think. Because today is Christmas eve, I want to part with you all while smiling”, and further “let us introduce the new song to be release on 21 January” before performing [Wake Me Tonight].

After singing [Get Out] during encore, Junsu said “with the next song our [2014 JYJ Japan Dome Tour] ends. When we started off in China, I was also doing musical then and frankly it was tough but today I really feel lonely. Until now even when we couldn’t appear on TV or in the midst of various bad situations, we could overcome everything and be here now because of you all. I feel that I can prepare for my next step with your support and love. I will continue to do my best”. Jaejoong sighed with deep emotion ” after becoming the name JYJ there will be no next, we don’t know what will happen next. Everyday we feared what’s to come tomorrow. Everytime we performed in Japan we always say [we can meet again] but we don’t know when that will be and spent our time while watching over that period of “uncertain future”. But this concert I felt the trust with you and the really deep love that is like an assurance that we can certainly keep doing this. Although we talk about going into military service soon, I am coming to Yokohama in January (laugh). We won’t be meeting for 2 years but 2 years is short so just wait for us for a while alright”.
Yuchun also said “yesterday I was listenig to some good old songs with Jaejoong in the car after a long while. I want to make beautiful memories too from now. This beautiful memories cannot be made without all of you and without Jaejoong and Junsu….. Let’s make beautiful memories with JYJ and all of you from now. Thank you today” warm words from his heart.

To Jaejoong who said he didn’t want to do the next song, Yuchun proposed “then let’s do A Cappella” and the entire dome echoed with a huge roar of roof-penetrating loud cheers.
Everyone was super-excited when their A Capalle harmonized beautifully.
They sang [NINE] written by Jaejoong.

[BEGIN] was sang durng double=encore.
3 of them were filled with deep emotions and couldn’t control their crying.
Fans there were also crying, and finally they took a picture with fans behind them and promised to come back again, ending Japan Dome Tour’s finale with tears and emotions.
This Japan Dome Tour mobilized 240,000 people starting from November, performing at Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka.
After proving their continuous-poplularity, JYJ will release their first Japan single [Wake Me Tonight] on 21 January.